On March 13 and on April 30, the Taunton Daily Gazette published guest opinion pieces submitted by Tom Harris of the Canada-based International Climate Science Coalition. The gist of each article is that the scientists and the general public who are working for greater international awareness and preventative measures are alarmists. According to his reasoning, the world should wait until 100 percent of the evidence is in before we do even the slightest of actions to deal with the global warming situation. Apparently 99.9999 percent isn’t enough for Mr. Harris. If our criminal justice system functioned at this same level, no one would ever be convicted of a crime.

Maybe we should not be concerned with the climatic changes on our planet. It is a natural occurrence — one that has and is being accelerated by mankind over the last 250 years. Either increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will or will not increase global temperatures with the concurrent affect of decreasing ice sheets and increasing ocean levels. All the evidence of science shows that the increased CO2 levels have the effect of increasing the temperature of a planet.

There is no doubt as to the dramatically increasing levels of CO2 in the atmosphere. The brilliant research of the pioneer climatologist and chemist Dr. Charles Keeling has shown that CO2 levels have been continuously rising since the industrial era started. In the prophetic book, “The Next One Hundred Years” by Jonathan Weiner, published in 1990, Keeling’s research showed that carbon dioxide levels in the mid 1700s were at 250 parts per million (ppm); by 1958, 315 ppm; in 2014, 400 ppm.

If we do nothing to address this world wide phenomenon we will reap the consequences.